The company is also understood to have acquired the rights to a nature documentary called The Elephant Queen, which will be narrated by Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor, and is planning an adaption of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels. It has emerged that Apple has also signed up Steve Carell for his return to TV alongside Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston in a new drama.

According to The Information, the new streaming service will launch in the US in the first half of 2019 but will accelerate swiftly to include more than 100 other countries.

It is understood that Apple’s original programming will be available for free to Apple device owners while subscriptions to content from other companies will be available for purchase through the TV app on iOS and tvOS.

This will operate similar to Amazon Prime’s global offering, which sells subscriptions to services such as Showtime and HBO.